more will be revealed

One of the guys on the adult team that went with us down to Mississippi has been collecting pictures from the trip and posting them on his website. Here’s one of my team:

I haven’t had time to upload all of my 200 pics to Zooomr yet. Their upload tool is web-based and only can do 10 pics at a time, which is a little tedious. I’ll work on getting them on there soon. They are under the “pictures” page on this blog though. If you want to see more, check out Doug Oosterbaan’s website. He has a ton pictures and videos of our trip.

Yep, I’m back from NY. The wedding was awesome…definitely the nicest one I’ve ever been to and I’m not just saying that because it was my sister’s wedding. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep, but I think I’ve recovered from that. I still haven’t shared my thoughts on the Katrina trip, so I think I’ll do that now.

Overall, the trip was amazing. I believe that the students were really able to see the impact of serving other people, most probably for the first time. I was blown away by how hard the students worked, too! None of them slacked off, wandered away, or complained about the work. Every single one of them did whatever was asked of them, and I’m proud of them for that.

I believe that many of them grew closer to God through the trip as well. Each morning before we went to the work site, we spent time with God, studying the Bible, writing down thoughts on what we were reading and how it applied to our lives, as well as time in prayer using a prayer journal. In the evenings we would spend time together talking through our morning study. For me, our times in the evenings are what I’ll remember the most. For the first time for many, these students were studying the Bible on their own and seeing on their own how it applied to their lives. Our discussion times always went at least an hour and a half, some two hours. We’d also spend time evaluating what we were doing well and how we could improve, and it was during moments like that where I could see some of the leaders among the students emerging, encouraging the team to improve. We wrapped up our time together with students giving an encouragment bead to someone who stood out to them during the day, someone who showed either leadership, risk-taking, compassion, or service. And when giving the bead to that person, the student would tell that person why they were giving it to them, talking to them as if no one else was in the room (well…most did…some talked to the group, but that was ok). I think this was a huge part of the learning experience, because the students were being affirmed by others what their gifts might possibly be.

The trip wasn’t without hiccups, of course. We did experience a bit of team disunity towards the end of the trip which, I think, left some students hurt. I was so frustrated that Satan was able to get in there and mess things up, and it really hurt me to see the team not unified. I’m hoping the team was able to learn from the disagreements that arose and hopefully when they face a similar situation in the future, they’ll handle it differently.

But all in all, I’m so thankful for what God did in us and through us on the trip. He totally came through for us and for that I’m thankful. Thank you to all who prayed!

We pulled in to the church a few minutes before midnight (just like I told the parents!) after a 16 hour drive. I just got home about 10 minutes ago. I’m exhausted but very happy with the trip. I have to be at church by 8am so I need to get some sleep. My thoughts on the week will follow tomorrow.

Well, we made it through the week! Today was our last workday, and for the most part, the work was not that hard. We spent the day at Lt. Commander Grasty’s house, getting it ready for his arrival. The adult team of men that came with us on the trip were working until 2am last night, putting the finishing touches on the house. We spent all of today cleaning the house, doing some landscaping, and moving furniture. Definitely a good day.

The last 2 days were amazing. Our team work so incredibly hard both of the days, gutting one house each day. The first house was about 200 yards from the shore in Gulfport and had about 3 feet of water in it after the hurricane. Walking through it initially, the house looked somewhat fine, but it was obvious that mold was growing all over the place. The kids had at it, and ripped out all of the drywall in 5 rooms, as well as the kitchen counter and cupboards. Outside, the team cleaned up the yard both in the front and back and made it look really nice. For our first house, they did great! The owner was an elderly man who was staying in a FEMA trailer park a few blocks away. I met him briefly when we first got there but he wasn’t able to stay.

Our house we worked on yesterday was about 2 miles from the coast, and had rain damage from losing part of the roof. Our team kicked butt on this house, as we learned to work on one room at a time, which made things go so much smoother. We were able to meet the family that lived there as well: William, Lydia, and Miles. They were such a sweet family and so nice to talk with. We ended up gutting 5 rooms and a hallway. The ceilings were gutted as well, including all of the insulation in the attic. Our first house didn’t have any insulation, but we learned quick how to deal with it. It really is nasty stuff, especially when it was damp and moldy. I am so proud of how our team worked so hard and so well together. By the end of this week, people were taking iniative to find work, offering to help each other out, and leading others in getting the work done. No one wandered off or was lazy at all during the whole trip. And these are teenagers! The adult team of men were all surprised at how hard of workers they were, as well as how much work we did on the last house in just one day. : )

Our group times in the evenings have gone well…they could be better if the students participated more. But the ones who do have sparked great conversation, and I can tell they’re really wrestling with what their learning in the Bible. I know that for a lot of there students, this is the first time they’ve even had a consistent quiet time, first time they’ve ever really studied the Bible, first time they’ve consistently prayed. You can’t ask for much more than that. : )

We’re set to pull out of here at 7am tomorrow, and hopefully will be back in Dayton around midnight. We’ll be watching a lot of movies on the drive back!

I’ve found some more time to be able to post an update, so here we go. This week is turning out to be just what I hoped it would be. Yesterday was our first day of work, which took place at the Lt. Commander’s house. For the most part, everything went fine. The students did a great job doing the work given to them, while an adult team that came with us got their bearings on what needed to be done on the house still. Our group found themselves working, finishing a job, then waiting around for the next thing to do, and I know that it made things seem disorganized. And they somewhat were.

I spent most of yesterday driving around Gulfport for various reasons. First, I needed to pickup my van I rented. I then went with my 2 cooks to Walmart to buy food, and then to Sam’s for some more. We filled up basically 2 vans on our first trip and had to go back for one more load of water! It takes so much food to feed 35 people 3 meals a day for a week!

Once we had that wrapped up, I needed to figure out what our work was going to be for the week. Our work at the Lt. Commander’s house was not going to last more than another day. Crosspoint Church gave me 4 work orders to survey, all of them painting. Or so I thought. I drove from location to location and found 2 of them done, one building locked and no one home, and the other was a house in need of repairs way beyond our skill level.

Needless to say, I was a little frustrated and a bit worried. Our team had maybe another days work at the house they were at, and after that, we needed at least 3 full days worth of work. This definitely stretched my faith, but I just kept praying for God to show me what He wanted us to do.

This morning when we woke up, my plan was for our team to go back to the house they were at to finish work, and then possibly after lunch go to another work site if they were no longer needed. So that meant we really needed a job that fit us! I went over to Crosspoint again and wouldn’t you know, God answered our prayers. : )

We now have 2 houses to gut out, which is perfect for the team. I checked out both of them and we’re hoping to complete one tomorrow, the other by Friday noon, so that on Friday afternoon we can go back to the Lt. Commander’s house for when he arrives back from the trip to Disney World our church sent him on. I just love how God stretches us in small ways like this.

Our group really has been awesome at work and in our discussion times together. Both last night and tonight, we spent almost 2 hours together, talking through what we were learning in our quiet times, how God was working in our lives, how our team was doing and what we can improve on, as well as encouraging each other in the way we’ve treated others. I’m just so thankful for how God’s working and how well this trip is going. It’s Tuesday now and pretty soon, this week will be over…it’s crazy how fast it goes!

Even though I have internet, it’s crazy slow with the poor signal, so no uploading pics until I get back. Tonight, me and one of the pastors are going to pull a prank on one of the guys in the adult team…hopefully the video camera I set up with record it! If it’s good, I just might post that too. We’ll see!